Tuesday, June 14, 2005

UN envoy starts comprehensive review of standards in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, June 13 (AFP) - The special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Kai Eide, arrived on Monday in Kosovo to carry out a comprehensive review of UN set standards, whic h might lead to talks on the province's final status.

"My report will not focus only on the standards implementation but also the general political situation in the place," Eide said upon his arrival. Eide, who is Norway's ambassador to NATO and has an in-depth knowledge of the Balkans, met the UN mission (UNMIK) chief Soren Jessen-Petersen on arrival. Jessen-Petersen said the UN envoy's recommendations to the UN secretary general would be very important but added that "the outcome is to the very last extent now up to the performance of the authorities."

Ahead of the visit Kosovo newspapers on Monday called Eide "a standards inspector," adding that he was considered to be completely independent even from the UN authorities in the province. The UN Security Council decided in May to review this summer Kosovo's implementation of internationally- set democratic standards that are a condition for the opening of final negotiations on the province's status between Belgrade and Pristina.

Talks on Kosovo's final status are expected to start in September at the earliest if the province meets benchmarks in areas such as multi-ethnic democracy, respect for human rights and security.

10 comments:

Good luck guys, we're going to have to meet standards that Paris and Berlin can't claim they have.

Also, every standard has subsections and substandards numbering into the hundreds, just so they can find something Albanians are doing wrong, even if everything is by the book.

Do not fall for this nonsense, it's diplomatic red tape issued by Europe and Russia to prevent the Albanians from recreating their historic boundaries and changing the face of Eastern Europe. Applying these very same standards to France would provide for disastrous results, as one could guarantee the nation falls very short of fulfilling them.

So let's get this straight, a territory, not yet granted status as a nation, is supposed to provide employment to 2 million inhabitants, even though it is unqualified for loans or aid because of lack of status? It is supposed to provide security for its minorities despite having little or no funds to maintain basic human rights for its citizens? Give their minorities elevated citizenship despite not being able to cover electric bills and acquire tax revenue from the population? Sounds like the United Nations is trying to crack Kosova's egg before it hatches to me.

Give Kosova independence, then demand action be taken for the mistakes the world made on its territory.

Good luck guys, we're going to have to meet standards that Paris and Berlin can't claim they have.

Also, every standard has subsections and substandards numbering into the hundreds, just so they can find something Albanians are doing wrong, even if everything is by the book.

Do not fall for this nonsense, it's diplomatic red tape issued by Europe and Russia to prevent the Albanians from recreating their historic boundaries and changing the face of Eastern Europe. Applying these very same standards to France would provide for disastrous results, as one could guarantee the nation falls very short of fulfilling them.

So let's get this straight, a territory, not yet granted status as a nation, is supposed to provide employment to 2 million inhabitants, even though it is unqualified for loans or aid because of lack of status? It is supposed to provide security for its minorities despite having little or no funds to maintain basic human rights for its citizens? Give their minorities elevated citizenship despite not being able to cover electric bills and acquire tax revenue from the population? Sounds like the United Nations is trying to crack Kosova's egg before it hatches to me.

Give Kosova independence, then demand action be taken for the mistakes the world made on its territory.

Good luck guys, we're going to have to meet standards that Paris and Berlin can't claim they have.

Also, every standard has subsections and substandards numbering into the hundreds, just so they can find something Albanians are doing wrong, even if everything is by the book.

Do not fall for this nonsense, it's diplomatic red tape issued by Europe and Russia to prevent the Albanians from recreating their historic boundaries and changing the face of Eastern Europe. Applying these very same standards to France would provide for disastrous results, as one could guarantee the nation falls very short of fulfilling them.

So let's get this straight, a territory, not yet granted status as a nation, is supposed to provide employment to 2 million inhabitants, even though it is unqualified for loans or aid because of lack of status? It is supposed to provide security for its minorities despite having little or no funds to maintain basic human rights for its citizens? Give their minorities elevated citizenship despite not being able to cover electric bills and acquire tax revenue from the population? Sounds like the United Nations is trying to crack Kosova's egg before it hatches to me.

Give Kosova independence, then demand action be taken for the mistakes the world made on its territory.

Good luck guys, we're going to have to meet standards that Paris and Berlin can't claim they have.

Also, every standard has subsections and substandards numbering into the hundreds, just so they can find something Albanians are doing wrong, even if everything is by the book.

Do not fall for this nonsense, it's diplomatic red tape issued by Europe and Russia to prevent the Albanians from recreating their historic boundaries and changing the face of Eastern Europe. Applying these very same standards to France would provide for disastrous results, as one could guarantee the nation falls very short of fulfilling them.

So let's get this straight, a territory, not yet granted status as a nation, is supposed to provide employment to 2 million inhabitants, even though it is unqualified for loans or aid because of lack of status? It is supposed to provide security for its minorities despite having little or no funds to maintain basic human rights for its citizens? Give their minorities elevated citizenship despite not being able to cover electric bills and acquire tax revenue from the population? Sounds like the United Nations is trying to crack Kosova's egg before it hatches to me.

Give Kosova independence, then demand action be taken for the mistakes the world made on its territory.

However, France and Germany are able to maintain economically stable, democratic countries that abide by the rule of law. Giving Kosova its independence prematurely surely wouldn't have the same result.

Germany and France were under the Marshal plan, after a very undemocratic, and disturbing part of European history. A few years before that France was playing with its colonies (very undemocratic, and where is the rule of law? in French hands, not in Algerian), while Germany was preparing for war.

We need a chance to grow into a stable and democratic country, we never had this chance in Kosova. It's the first time its own inhabitants will be able to rule themselves after Greeks, Romans, Turks, Slavs.

Albanians are more than capable of governing themselves, we governed the Balkans under Illyrian guise and created a vast, advanced urban culture which was among the first in Europe to allow such progressive ideas as Queens, and women's rights to land ownership.

It took Afghanistan till 2001 to come up with that one, and they can govern themselves... I think Kosovars deserve the right to prove the bigotry of the world wrong.

Besides, we had a democracy long before Serbia did. Kosovar independence was declared in 1991 and Ibrahim Rugova was voted as president, in fair and free elections. Can't say that much about Milosevic, nor the regime he ran.

Why is Serbia allowed to have a say in whether or not we form into a democracy, we should be teaching them.